The Story of Viteau

or being a baby he got angry again, and told them they were a band of cowards to set upon him in this way,—a dozen men on on

n't want you to walk and we don't want you to go home. We shall t

s family, his connections, and his present business in riding thus alone through the forest roads. To these questions Louis was ready enough to give answer, for it was not his nature to conceal anything, unless he thought it absol

of that," said Louis. "As soon as they hear that you

if I had not thought that they would take you from me

n," said the boy. "You e

inly do," rep

ed Louis. "They will come with

e," returned

a collection of rude huts, which his capture; but this matter did not enter his mind. He went to sleep with the feel

well," he said, "that your mother is able to pay a handsome ransom for you, and, if she is so hard-hearted that she will not do

am not going to pine away, no matter how long you

ave a son carried away to the heart of the forest, where she can never find him, and where he must stay, m

o Viteau, myself, and tell my mother about the ransom; and I promise you that she will send you all the money she can afford to spend for me in that way. And, if there is

I have heard that the Countess of Viteau has taught her sons to be scholars,—you may write a letter to your mother, and tell her in what a doleful plight you find yourself, and how necessary it is that she should send all the money that I ask for. Thus she will see that

e how I am to find out that. I suppose the Captain wanted to give me something to do, so as to keep me from troubling him. I am not go

pany with other stolen horses. And even if he had been able to mount and ride away unobserved, it would have been impossible for Louis to find his way along the devious paths of the forest to the highwa

, as he was walking between two of the huts, "ar

uis, deeming it necessary to r

to be riding alone on a road, walled in for miles and miles by trees, bushes, and brave cotereaux. But, of cou

at he was looking for his horse, and so, as

asto, so that I could wri

everything in the world as easily as you found Jasto, you will

o meet you,"

happen in that manner. If what we are looking for does not look for us, we never find it. But what is th

sun was beginning to be warm, and he sat

ng at his companion. "Your clothes are not torn.

THE HIGHWAYMEN A

and are worse torn and have staid torn longer than the clothes of any man in all our goodly company. But t

the torn places were of many curious shapes, as if the wearer had been making a hurried journey through miles of bramble bushes; but all t

en torn," said Louis, "b

qualities. They are torn and they are mended. If one's clothes are torn, the only way to have clothes that are not torn is to have new ones. Think of that, boy, and make no r

better than th

o was taking it to waste it in embroidery in some friend's castle, was all the thread I had for my mending. Now, you could have all things suitable for your

me to write a letter to my mother, urging her to send good ransom for me,

scarce, and parchment costs too much; and so there is none of either in this company. But I shall see to it that you have something to write on when you are ready to write. It strikes me t

ite a letter to him. He was now going to send a letter to Viteau, but under what strange circumstances it would be wr

mbled to say I could do it. And I was a grown man, and had fought in three battl

n to anything which might give him a helping hi

g out his legs, "I shall tell you a

om the opposite side of the

I must go. But you sit still, just where you are, and when I co

ype="